But perhaps the strongest appeal you can make is based on what naturally grows out of the strength and beauty of good brickwork, and that is real economy. But don't be deceived by the superficial error of initial cost. A $4.00 pair of shoes are cheaper than a $5.00 pair, it is true, but if the $5.00 pair fit better, look better, and wear twice as long, the $4.00 pair are dearer, and you would lose not only in money but in personal satisfaction by getting them. Real economy would lead you to buy the $5.00 pair.
Face Brick Bungalow, North Evanston, Ill. Robert E. Seyfarth, Architect
The Importance of Building a Home
Much more is this principle true in building a house. It is a very important undertaking for every man, for it involves considerable outlay of money and intimately concerns his comfort and welfare for a long period of years. A man rarely builds more than one house in his life-time, so that it is a serious matter to make a mistake,—he will always regret it. In other words, when he builds, he wants to avoid fooling himself, as he does, if he builds wrong; he wants to build right at the very start. This is what he certainly can do by building with brick. For out of the structural strength and artistic beauty of brick he gains advantages that make it the most economical investment in the end.
Upkeep or Maintenance
Take the items as they come, in their effect upon the value of the house. First, there is upkeep. So far as brick enter into the construction of a house, it requires practically no maintenance. You do not have to patch, repair, or paint a brick wall,—it wears. It is as sound in twenty-five years as the day it was built, and even more attractive. Figure up the paint bill for a frame house in ten years, then add the various little repairs necessitated by the shrinking, cracking, and decaying of wood exposed to the weather, and you have a neat little bill of upkeep, for the frame house, which is exactly nothing for brick.
Depreciation
Next consider depreciation which is a separate item from maintenance or upkeep, and is practically nil in the case of the brick house. Appraisal engineers have estimated it, for the brick house, at only one per cent a year, beginning after the first five years. And the one per cent in reality should apply only to such portions of the building as are subject to wear, as finished floors, plumbing, hardware, roofs, and the like. Approximately 60 per cent of a well built brick house does not depreciate at all through a long period of years. On the other hand, a frame house, according to the same authorities, begins to depreciate from the day it is finished at from 2 to 3 per cent annually. At the lowest estimate of 2 per cent a $6,500 frame house would depreciate $130 a year or $1,300 in ten years. A similar house of brick, worth let us say $7,000, would depreciate, allowing the full one per cent, $70 a year from the fifth year on, or $350 in ten years. That is, when you add to the $350 depreciation the $500 excess cost of the brick house, the resulting $850 is still less by $450 than the depreciation alone on the frame house. The wear and tear of time do not allow us to get away from these facts.